James’ Brand New Blog

August is JBNBlog’s favourite month when it comes to Perpetual Illuminations

A detail (well, almost the whole thing) of my dad’s August poem for Ted Goodden’s Perpetual Illuminations A Book of Hours from London Ontario. Taken with trusty BlackBerry.

August is my favourite month — at least when it comes to London stained glass artist & seer Ted Goodden’s Perpetual Illuminations series, which matches Ted’s ace art with poems by London-region bards.

Dad’s August poem is my favourite . . . but JBNBlog admits to being biased. The other poets include Julie Berry, Molly Peacock & Cornelia Hoogland so dad’s month is in classy company.

Elgin County & Port were more my St. Thomas-raised mom’s terrain . . . she has a great poem about Mackies and the Port beach. Dad also knew it well & in reading over his images, it’s fun to guess what he had going on as he created the poem. The oddly jumpy rhymes (maybe like waves, ie. “swell”), The Tempest connection with the beach & chess, the travels of two rhymsters & scanners (ie. Mom & Dad), the reaching for ”lune de miel” perhaps playing on Mom’s Acadian heritage & honeymoon, & the made-up last word “strategerie,” a portmanteau tribute to our poets & chess players having landed near the seacoast of Alice’s Wonderland in their calendrical counterpart to the tale of winter.

The late Bal Rajan, world’s greatest Milton scholar & a fine poet himself, murmured as he read the poem that “Lake Erie” & “strategerie” was a “desperate rhyme” . . . JBNBlog likes it ne’ertheless & what better place for “rehearsing” (now there is a word my dad knew well) eerie strategy than “beneath Lake Erie” . . . as you hold your breath in the looking glass wavy world.

Reading August this morning, after putting it in place in our wall-hanging unit version of Perpetual Illuminations takes my breath away. It also reminds me dad would have turned 86 on Sept. 1 . . . just after August ends.

London’s greatest poet aka my mom Colleen Thibaudeau cheerfully mentioned on occasion she had either submitted a poem for the Illuminations & Ted had rejected it or the possibility had been discussed & never happened for some reason. A great spirit, Mom could resist collaborations when she was in a certain mood . . . late in her life, she hemmed & hawed over overtures from ace London composers Oliver Whitehead and Steve Holowitz to set some of her poems to music. Mom insisted (wrongly, Mom, wrongly) her lines were “too long” for music.

Still, the project, with her loving family’s joyful encouragement, is proceeding. Oliver mentioned he’s been setting some of Mom’s poems to music when we met at Home County during the triumphant premiere of Andrew Downing’s and Jayme Stone’s banjo concerto. Hooray.

The best place to view the entire year of Illuminations is (if memory serves) at the world-class Landon branch library. All 12 of the Goodden-poet monthly masterworks are on display there with the light shining through. As it should.

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About James Reaney

James Reaney has covered everything from operas to Neil Young concerts to baseball's World Series in more than 30 years at The London Free Press. Now, he concentrates on London entertainment in his Saturday Today section column and Forest City lore in a Saturday Comment section column called My London. He is the host of two weekly video. lfpress.com features. One is Reaney's Pick, an online platform for London performers. The other is It's On, a guide to the best of the local scene.

James is a passionate supporter of the Jack Richardson Music Awards, the host of an annual gala and other free events in London's only not-for-profit recognition of our musical excellence. He is also an active member of the London & Middlesex Historical Society.

James Stewart Reaney has covered everything from operas to Neil Young concerts to baseball's World Series in more than 30 years at The London Free Press. Now, he concentrates on London entertainment in his Saturday Today section column and Forest City lore in a Saturday Comment section column called My London.

In addition to James' Brand New Blog, his online commitments at lfpress.com have seen him host two weekly video features. One is Reaney's Pick, an online platform for London performers. The other is It's On, a guide to the best of the local scene. A passionate supporter of London arts & culture, James is a member of the Jack Richardson London Music Awards volunteer board. The JRLMA hosts an annual gala as London's only not-for-profit recognition of our musical excellence. He is a member of the London & Middlesex Historical Association.